Vegetables Gardening - Growing Organic Vegetables

Hi Jim,

I have a large allotment in the UK which is troubled with rabbits, or should
I say overrun.

There is no quick and easy answer to this problem, so I bit the bullet and
put in a Rabbit Proof Fence.

I got rolls of 3' and 2' chicken mess. I dung down a foot, and buried it a
foot deep from the 3' rolls. I put in posts as I went keeping the wire as
taut as possible and stapling the wire to them as I went, having a helper is
great. Once I had done that I went round again with the 2' wire above,
giving me a height above ground of 4'. This was essential as when the snow
was on the ground we had seen that a rabbit had jump over an 'almost 4'
fence. I tied the two lots of wire together at intervals with cable ties and
ran some wire in and out of the top to stop any flopping.

This was 4 years ago and I have NEVER had a rabbit on my plot since.

Good luck.

Jackie

From: Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Yara
Sent: 13 April 2011 15:03
To: Organic_Gardening@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Organic_Gardening] Rabbit control

Hi Jim,

In my experience how much you have to work on the fence depends on how much
pressure you have from rabbits. Meaning the size of the population vs food
availability.
I am on 2 acres in a neighborhood, most houses around me do not have fences,
and we see a fox at night from time to time and have a couple of hawks that
leave nearby. I have clover mixed with the grass, and rabbits love it.
My veggie garden has a 3' fence, it is the plastic coated metal fence
(green), I got it at tractor supply comp.
I used staples on the bottom, about every 2 feet, and I have not had
problems with them getting in, we have had the fence and garden for 3 years
now. Rabbits did chew through a plastic fence i tried on the first year and
will eat sweet potatoes and greens if planted outside the fence. They do not
bother toms, eggplants, onions.
A friend who lives 15 min away in a neighborhood with small yards and
privacy fences has a terrible problem with rabbits and chipmunks eating
everything, they had to bury the fence and put a cage on lettuces as the
rabbits jumped the 3' fence for the lettuce. I imagine that the tight spaces
and fencing makes it harder for the predators to hunt, and grasses do not
provide much forage as they do not like Bermuda as much :)

HTH,

Yara Silva
Roswell GA
Zone 7b

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